Try:

my $MSG = `tail -n 10 $ERRLOG`;
[download]

but really you ought to consider using something like File::Tail to do the job instead.

File::Tail is more for "tail -f" functionality, where you want to keep reading from a continuously updated (i.e. appended to) file. Using backticks (as in your example) or qx is a perfectly acceptable (and simple, efficient) solution.

File::Tail may be used like a conventional tail(1) - without the rescan - by specifying the 'tail' argument to the constructor. However to prevent the 'wait' you have to only display those lines you ask for (then destroy the object). For example:


use strict;
use File::Tail;

my $num_of_lines = 10;
my $tail = new File::Tail (name=>$ERRLOG, tail => $num_of_lines);
  
for (1..$num_of_lines) {
   my $line = $tail->read();
   print "$_: $line";
}

$tail = undef;
[download]


update: I emailed the author of File::Tail (Matija Grabnar) with this solution, and he was kind enough to respond immediately with the following:
"You're wasting most of File::Tails potential, but yes, that should work.
Note that it won't work if your input is a stream or a pipe (for which ordinary tail would work)."

$error_string = qx(tail -n 10 $ERRLOG);
[download]

@error_array  = qx(tail -n 10 $ERRLOG);
[download]

Although without the extra quotes, since qx() itself is one of the "quote-like operators" described in perlop:

@error_array  = qx(tail -n 10 $ERRLOG);
[download]

open($cmd, "tail -n 10 $ERRLOG |");
while(<$cmd>) {
   # do something here
}
[download]